Paes-Hingis enter French Open's third round

India's veteran tennis player Leander Paes and his mixed doubles partner Martina Hingis cruised into the third round of French Open tennis tournament here on Saturday.

The Indo-Swiss duo of Paes-Hingis defeated fourth seeded Kazakhstani-Romanian pair of Yaroslava Shvedova and Florin Mergea 2-6, 7-5, 10-6 in one hour and 19 minutes in the second round.

The fourth seeded Yaroslava-Mergea started the match on a positive note taking an important 3-2 lead over their opponent.

Then a couple of break points and unforced errors by Paes-Hingis ensured they took total control of the set to eventually win the first set 6-2 comfortably and go 1-0 up after play was halted for quite some time due to rain.

In the second set it was a see-saw battle between the two, as each won their respective games to make it 5-5. But thereafter Yaroslava-Mergea lost a serve to hand Paes-Hingis the advantage and the latter grabbed it to win the second set 7-5.

With two sides winning one set each, the match went to a super tie-breaker, which Paes-Hingis won it 10-6 at ease to enter the third round.

--IANS

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